OutSystems, which provides a platform for low-code rapid application development, achieved record revenue in 2018 due largely to the value customers are gaining from the low-code platform.
OutSystems posted a 66% increase in annual recurring revenue for 2018, which is its third consecutive increase of more than 50%, pushing annual recurring revenue to over $100-million
OutSystems added hundreds of new customers and nearly 60 000 new developers in 2018. Companies such as Toyota, Logitech, Deloitte, Ricoh, Schneider Electric, and GM Financial use the OutSystems low-code platform to rapidly develop custom applications that digitalise and differentiate their business.
“The success our customers are having speeding their digital transformation initiatives with our low-code platform is inspiring,” said Paulo Rosado, CEO and founder of OutSystems. “Our customers’ success is translating into amazing results for us and for them. Demand for low-code platforms has never been higher, and we look forward to another year of tremendous growth and adoption of our platform.”
Customer feedback recently propelled OutSystems to receive Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice 2018 designations in both mobile development and High-Productivity Application Platform as a service (aPaaS).
“We’re thrilled to see customers using our low-code platform to innovate, generate revenue, and improve productivity,” said Rosado. “In 2018, we saw many new entrants in the low-code market with narrow solutions that can box customers into a new form of legacy. Our customers surprise and delight us every day with the variety of ways they use our platform. This fuels our commitment to delivering a full-stack, low-code platform without limitation.”
Craig Terblanche, director of OutSystems, South Africa, adds: “OutSystems’ platform supports the widest range of enterprise applications. Some customers are using it to deliver mission-critical, efficient, reliable, and compliant solutions that replace ageing legacy ERP/CRM systems. Others have built mobile and web apps for internal processes, field services, and the frontline which improves employee effectiveness and satisfaction.”
According to Terblanche, the strongest growth in 2018 has been with companies who are using OutSystems to develop B2C customer experiences for online banking, account enrolment, and self-service, increasing customer satisfaction which creates new revenue streams for a competitive advantage.
For the South African B2B/B2C market it’s an advantage that OutSystems recognises the importance and impact of mobile technology on business in Africa.
Terblanche concludes: “Mobile has already proven its benefits. Mobile apps accelerate business benefits by providing access to relevant information at the right time and place, in an easy-to-use, consumable and actionable form. This gives employees the insight and tools needed to accomplish more.
“2019 will open up further opportunities for OutSystems to prove that a platform implemented strategically to provide customers access on their terms including mobile will give local businesses the edge they need over their competitors.”
Here are just a few examples of customers who chose OutSystems to increase business impact, remove complexity, and ramp up speed and agility:
* Hollard Life – Using OutSystems, the ITProsper team at Hollard Life built an online Healthy Life Insurance quoting and selling website in 3 months. This enabled the complete automation of the sales process of healthy life insurance policies. An integrated life insurance underwriting engine was built and implemented in six months. This engine enabled automation of 80% of underwritten life insurance policies. The underwriting engine was integrated into an online brokers sales application, enabling brokers to do digital quotes thus removing redundant paperwork from the process.
Strategic Insurance Systems – (SIS) is a specialised underwriting management company in the short term insurance industry. Through OutSytsems, SIS has a flexible and adaptable system that allows them to serve their partner ecosystem through both web and mobile channels providing a unique competitive advantage.
South African Insurance Company – Built their B2B Mobile application published to iOS and Play stores in 3 months on OutSystems including a web backend, integration to legacy and their loyalty services from start to live.
Credit Solution Services – (CSS Three60) developed a custom solution to address the unique needs of debt collection.CSS replaced their current systems with custom applications that addressed three unique and critical business areas for the company.
”The Sustainable Cotton Cluster” – an initiative launched by Cotton SA four years ago, has helped to increase capacity and competitiveness in South Africa’s textile and apparel industry. According to Hennie Bruwer, CEO of Cotton SA, production has seen an increase from 25,000 bales in 2013 to roughly 200,000 bales for the past 2018 season, 32% of these lint bales were BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) cotton.
iQ Logistica is the partner providing technology enablement to the virtually integrated value chain approach followed by Cotton SA during this initiative. The SCC platform, as it is known, was developed using OutSystems +in record time, for which iQ Logistica received an innovation award. The platform provides operations visibility and traceability across the entire cotton and cotton products value chain. Using a fractal logic the platform is set up for an industry sector and can accommodate an unlimited number of supply chains locally and globally. It provides a shared services infrastructure in which a value chain traceability audit trail is created and maintained according to the way participating organisations trade with one another.”
2015 Innovation award for Best Deployment Speed – CenSea Built apps to run internal operations in less than a year, evolving processes to adapt to fast-changing industry legislation in South Africa. CenSea faced a series of challenges evolving its own internal processes quickly to adapt and finding developers to get the work done. The financial services firm handled both issues by developing a series of apps using the OutSystems low-code platform. It built a master employer database, a call centre app and banking switch integration APIs in less than a year – a third of the time it would have taken using traditional development processes. Received Excellence In Financial Services Award.
* The City of Oakland modernised its digital services and increased digital inclusion for residents, saving $1 million.
* Burton revamped its logistics and distribution operations for its snowboarding equipment and apparel sales. The app was delivered in about one-third of the time originally estimated for a conventionally coded app and has generated 10 times ROI in revenue.
* Nimbi – Supply chain management software giant developed a new core system that improved business productivity by 42% and saved $20-million in development costs.
Post Office – a UK retailer delivered a new mobile financial product in four months. OutSystems is now the foundation of its future digital strategy of creating new revenue streams to serve its 17 million customers across the UK.
Locally, several similar solutions have been completed in South Africa in various industries ranging from healthcare, to insurance and financial service companies. OutSystems clients like Old Mutual, Hollard and ACT have embraced technological change for accelerated and improved operational flexibility and better customer experiences.